Devices using rotating rotors juxtaposed static stators for mixing liquids is well known in the art.
The device disclosed in USSR Inventor""s Certificate No. 1479088 SU, Jul. 28, 1989, consists of a body having internally mounted rotor and stator, with clearance between the rotor and stator and clearance between the stator and the body. The stator is mounted in the body using annular elastic gaskets enabling it to vibrate in the radial direction relative to the axial axis of rotation of the rotor. Both the rotor and stator have turbulizing elements on their opposing surfaces. The device incorporates a mechanism for regulating the axial clearance between the rotor and stator. Flowing liquid media are processed in the device by the action of radial pressure pulsations and circumferential forces of the turbulizing elements. Said force factors are a result of the rotation of the rotor and the vibrations of the stator.
USSR Patent No. 1837953 RU, Nov. 2, 1993 discloses a device containing a body with a central tube for admitting the mixture being processed and an outlet tube for the finished product. Inside the body are a rotor and stator in the form of perforated cylinders concentric relative to one another and to the rotational axis of the device. The device also incorporates an ultrasonic vibration generator attached via an elastic mount to the axis of the inlet tube. The device processes the medium between the rotor and stator with the additional action of ultrasonic vibrations.
The rotary pulsation device disclosed in WO 96/20778 Jul. 11, 1996 (based on PCT/RU95/00061) consists of a body containing a rotor and stator which are mounted with gaps between them in both the radial and axial direction. The rotor and stator both have turbulizers opposing one another. The stator is mounted with an axial clearance relative to the wall of the body and is thereby supported at a point near its center. The stator produces spatial vibrations over a wide range of acoustic frequencies generated under the pressure pulsations and speed of the medium being processed.
An assessment of the technical field shows that potentially beneficial stator vibrations are poorly understood, poorly controlled and largely determined by the stiffness of the stator disk body, the viscosity of the treated medium, and the extent of stator vibration dampening, e.g. due to the presence of the medium being processed in the gap between the stator and the body of the device.
Thus the technical objective of the present invention is to raise the effectiveness of treatment of flowing liquid media of various types and compositions for simultaneous or separate process of, for example, dispersion, homogenization, pasteurization sterilization, and sonochemical reactions using controlled ultrasonic vibrations of the rotor and stator. This results in an unexpected, improvement in efficiency of design and process of the device.
The technical objective is accomplished by the rotary pulsation device of the present invention which is comprised of a body having an interior in which at least one rotor and one or more stators are mounted so as to permit rotation of the rotor relative to the stators. The rotor and stators are mounted so that they have surfaces which face each other and a clearance between these opposing surfaces. The rotor and stator each have one or more turbulizing elements on their opposing surfaces. Each stator has at least one support point in its central part, preferably located in the area of the rotor""s axis of rotation. The stator is mounted such that there is clearance between the stator itself and the body of the device. The device also has a means for adjusting the clearance between the rotor and the stator. The rotor and stator can also include incisions and through slots, preferably between the turbulizing elements and at the outer edge. The incisions, slots, and stator mounting method of the present device enable the rotor and stator to create ultrasonic resonant vibrations; the incisions and slots acting as additional turbulizing elements and means for affecting the rotor""s stiffness and the stator mount enabling the stator to execute bulk vibrations with the rotor. The bulk ultrasonic resonant vibrations of the rotor and stator result in an unexpected superior effectiveness of the present device for dispersion and homogenization of the treated liquid medium, increases the effectiveness of pasteurization and sterilization processes, and considerably increases the yield of end products of sonochemical reactions.